American actor, screenwriter, playwright and female impersonator, Charles Busch on his play “Tales Of The Allergist’s Wife being made into a movie with Bette Midler:

Coming up for Busch are a full scale revival of one of his works — which must remain nameless at the moment, as it’s not been formally announced yet — at the Cherry Lane in 2020, and it looks like the film version of his true classic, ‘Tale of the Allergist’s Wife,” is finally a real go, starring Bette Midler and Sharon Stone.

“It’s been on and off the table for 17 years, with Bette attached for 15, but it seems to be moving along. I like the director, Andy Fickman, who did ‘Parental Guidance,’ with her and Billy Crystal. He wants to have me very involved, which is rarely the case with the writer, and I keep updating my adaptation. It was very stagebound so I’ve opened it up. There are more characters and her daughter figures more in it. I’m very pleased with it; it all looked dead a year ago but seems very alive now.”

“Allergist’s Wife” is one of his plays with a very healthy regional life.

Bette Midler and Sharon Stone will co-star in the film version of Charles Busch’s award-winning Broadway play THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST’S WIFE with Andy Fickman (Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2) directing.

The original odd couple play opened at the Manhattan Theater Club before moving to Broadway where it was nominated for Best Play at the Tonys and Outstanding New Play from the Drama Desk.

Robert Cort will produce the film with original Broadway producer Daryl Roth, while Jeffrey Melnick is an executive producer.

IMR is bringing the project to the European Film Market in Brooklyn to find buyers with CAA repping U.S. and Canada.

Represented by CAA, David Steinberg Entertainment and Larry Shire, Midler previously worked with Fickman on his 2012 comedy Parental Guidance, which grossed $77.3 million from a Christmas release. More recently, Midler has been the star of the Tony-winning Broadway hit Hello, Dolly! playing Dolly Gallagher Levi, and she’ll play Marjorie Taub in the film version of Allergist’s Wife..

Marjorie is an Upper West Side resident in the middle of a crisi when her childhood friend Lee (Stone) shows up , having the glamorous life Marjorie has always wanted Lee becomes the Taubs’ houseguest. them not realizing she has a secret agenda.

Midler is just one Oscar win away from becoming a member of the EGOT club in that she’s already won Emmy, Tony and Grammy awards but hasn’t converted her two Oscar nominations into wins.

Stone, repped by CAA and Mosaic, is close behind with single Emmy and Golden Globe wins (for The Practice and Casino) but only one Oscar nomination and three Golden Raspberries (or Razzies) to her credit. She recently played a small role in James Franco’s The Disaster Artist.

Fickman is repped by WME and Management 360, and he’s been spending much of his recent time as exec. producer on the hit CBS comedy Kevin Can Wait.

Lifelong baseball fan Billy Crystal didn’t have to research much for his role in “Parental Guidance” – he’s the announcer for a San Francisco Giants minor-league team. But for the only clip in the film showing the big club, did he have to choose one with eventual league MVP Buster Posey making an out?

“No, I improvised this thing, and he’s picking on me,” he protests, waving at the interviewer.

“Oh, I like that,” she says, with that famed cackle.

Strange as it seems, these two storied vets had not worked together until “Parental Guidance” – the new comedy about grandparents baby-sitting for a week for their stressed-out daughter (played by Marisa Tomei) and her husband (Tom Everett Scott).

“It just made sense. ‘Who do you want?’â€‰” Crystal makes a muffled nasal noise, indicating Midler with his thumb, “We had a dinner meeting, right away we felt married â€¦”

“Same tribe,” Midler interjects.

“See how she finishes my sentences?”

“We’re from the show-business tribe,” she slyly amends, and the riffing between these two old pros is under way.

“Ancient, we’re ancient! We’re a million!” Midler blurts out at the very mention of their long careers. Then she grins: “But we look fabulous.”

Surprisingly, Crystal ponies up with his “Fernando” character from the early ’80s: “â€‰’They look mahvelous!’â€‰”

And they do – fit, funny and very ready to take this show on the road.

“I went to an aging doctor: ‘You’re gonna live to be 150.’ I don’t know if I want to,” says Midler, sounding deadly serious. “I mean, 150, can you imagine? Instead of seeing the platform shoes three times, like 18 times!”

Crystal says they have known each other for “35, 40 years,” having met at the Improv in New York, to which Midler says, “I have no memory of it because I have no memory.”

“I used to open for Melissa Manchester, who was one of her original Harlettes. And over the years, Marc Shaiman, who did the beautiful score for this movie, kept going,” he mimes working a piano, “â€‰’Why don’t you two work together?’ – as he’s playing. And then it happened. And he did the score. So it was perfect.”

“Oh, I’m such a fan,” gushes Midler of her co-star and producer. “I’ve watched him from the very beginning. ‘Throw Momma from the Train,’ ‘The City Slickers,’ ‘Harry Met Sally,’ come on, help me out here.”

“â€‰’Beaches,'” he “helps,” and both laugh. “I always loved her because she was unique. She was one of the first performers to step up and go, ‘This is who I am’ and be dangerous, be bawdy. To deliver the joke with the timing of anybody and then break your heart with a ballad, and then be filthy funny – right in your face – I loved that.”

Midler was surprised to find how involved a producer Crystal was. He had shepherded the project through five years, two studios, a couple of writing teams, the writers’ strike and more.

“You really were in the trenches with the studio and all that,” she says as he nods his head gravely. “He was wearing two hats, and it was really stressful. He had to come on and be funny and then walk off the set and tear his hair out.”

“It’s a big responsibility,” he says. “I fought for this thing to get made for so long.”

Midler adds, “And to make a family picture, a $30 million picture in a sea of $150 million pictures, these tent-pole movies that have to sell overseas and make a billion dollars for these bottom-line people – I mean, we were really the little movie that could.”

The two reminisce about the freezing conditions in which they shot certain scenes because proper soundstages weren’t in the budget, then Midler unloads:

“I do wish there were more sense in the picture business. Because there are audiences that are shut out. When you showed this picture at the AARP convention, you got a standing ovation. People will say, ‘Who cares about them?’ Well, green is green. Money is money. There are 70 million â€¦”

“Seventy-seven million people, baby boomers,” he says.

“They’re not all playing X, X-Man, whatever it is.”

“X-Man,” Crystal relishes it, laughs heartily, and corrects: “X-Box.”

“X-Box, they’re not all playing X-Box,” shrugs the Grammy, Emmy and Tony winner.

“But it was really an eye opener because we get down there for the AARP convention â€¦,” he starts.

“I didn’t go. I’m not identified with those people,” she says, with faux haughtiness.

“We had 3,000 people – Fox made this beautiful movie theater out of a convention hall. It was like a rock concert. Anyone who could stand, stood,” he says, with a smile. “And we followed Paul Ryan,” Midler cackles as he continues, “who had made that infamous ‘We’re gonna take down Medicare’ ‘Boo, boo!’ ‘What about my penicillin?’ ‘(bleep) you!’ ‘Boo, boo!’

“They’re an audience out there who wants something. So I’m glad we were able to deliver something for them. And their kids. And their kids.”

Which winds back nicely to the nut of the movie: the clash of parenting styles over generations. The idea came from a real-life baby-sitting experience Crystal and wife Janice had with their grandkids.

“We had, like, six days. With that came the list of things to do. And not do. ‘Don’t say this, don’t say that. If she says this, don’t say that. Don’t take them here, don’t let them near this.’ It was a bible of things to follow. So we did this for six days, and on the seventh day â€¦” he tosses the softball:

MetroBilly Crystal: Bette Milder and I are like a pair of old shoes
Wednesday 5 Jun 2013 6:00 am

How would you sum up your character in the film Parental Guidance? Artieâ€™s a baseball announcer but in the minor leagues. Heâ€™s done it for 35 years and moved his family around to pursue his dream. Then he gets fired. Heâ€™s set in his ways but inside is a grandfather waiting to come out. Iâ€™d say heâ€™s funny and irascible but willing to change.

Have you ever had the same dilemma, finding yourself out of work? Every time they say: â€˜Thatâ€™s a wrapâ€™ on whatever project, youâ€™re out of work â€“ but nothing with the finality of what Artie is facing. At that age, itâ€™s likely he wonâ€™t get another chance. As an actor, you get to a certain age and the way the movie business is, they think only kids go to see movies. But then with the success of adult-themed movies, like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, you wonder why they donâ€™t make more of them.

You have a great rapport with Bette Midler. How was working with her? It took so long for us to work together but it was well worth the wait. Weâ€™ve known each other for thirtysomething years and when the time came to make the movie I looked at [director] Andy Fickman and we both went: â€˜What about Bette? She seems perfect.â€™ And we fell into a rapport. It felt very natural. We were like a pair of old shoes.

You also get to sing togetherâ€¦ That happened by accident. We were in an old train station in Atlanta, Georgia. There were all these tiles and it had a great echo. It was cold and we were entertaining the little ones, who were getting a little bored, so we started singing old rockâ€™nâ€™roll songs. And I said to her: â€˜Why donâ€™t we sing in the movie?â€™

Are you on Facebook or Twitter? I tweet a little bit but Iâ€™m not on Facebook. I have friends like Steve Martin and Albert Brooks who are great tweeters but itâ€™s too much pressure for me. Tweets have to be funny when youâ€™re in the public eye as a funny person.